Environment / Assam

GUWAHATI, March 4 ? The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has detected loss of revenue amounting to Rs 15.14 crore in 72 cases in the Forest Department in the year 2000-2001. The CAG, in its report for the year 2000-2001, which was tabled in the State Assembly recently said that during that year, the State Forest Department lost revenue amounting to Rs 90.78 lakh on account of damage of timber, Rs 160.76 lakh for delay in settlement of mahal, quarry etc, Rs 128.73 lakh due to non-disposal and delay in disposal of timber, Rs 344.26 lakh due to locking up of revenue because of delay in...

GUWAHATI, Feb 28 ? The Kathalguri gas based power project of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) has become the first power station of the North-eastern region to be declared as the centre of excellence by the Government of India. NEEPCO sources said that the installed capacity of the power plant is 291 mw, consisting of six gas turbine units each of 33.5 MW and three steam turbine units each of 30 mw capacity. The gas turbines were commissioned in 1995-96, while, the commercial operation of the steam turbines started on April, 1 1999. NEEPCO sources said that in February...

GOLAGHAT, March 1 ? The wildlife parks of North East India are sanctuaries for some of the world?s most exotic plants and animals including one-horned rhino which is still struggling for existence owing to poaching, climatic changes and human encroachment on their natural habitats. In the past 20 years, the world?s rhino population has already shown a remarkable decline from 1,50,000 to 41,000 presenting a grim picture about this wildlife resource. In the Kaziranga National Park which provides sanctuary to an estimated 1,400 Indian rhinos, animals are lost every year due to poaching. In 1985...

JORHAT, Feb 21— Pitchforked into international reckoning for its unique cultural repository, and presently vying for securing World Heritage Site status under UNESCO, a two-member team of researchers from the British Library’s National Sound Archive (NSA) have just about completed collecting, recording and documenting the variegated music and dance styles prevalent in Majuli river island within Jorhat district. Part of a 17-month project, sound recordist and music researcher Rolf Killius along with associate Ms Jutta Winkler recorded the complex music and dance styles in 12 digital audio-tapes...

KAMALABARI, Feb 17 — Majulials — the people of Majuli, the largest fresh water island on the earth, are now consolidating their unity more and more every passing moment to put up a rock-solid front in their campaign for securing the World Heritage Site status for their unique island, — which is the seat of Assamese Vaishnava culture and religion and a treasure house of diverse ethnicites. The campaign for securing the World Heritage Site status for Majuli is spearheaded by the Majuli Island Protection and Development Council (MIPADC), — an NGO headed by Dr Arun Kumar Sarma, MP. Dr Sarma is a...

GUWAHATI, Feb 14 — Felling of nesting trees and wanton destruction of mixed forests have been causing rapid shrinkage to natural breeding habitat of the endangered greater Adjutant Stork (called hargila in Assam) which have largest concentration of about 600 in Brahmaputra Valley. Earlier, widely distributed in South East Asia, this stork now has been confined only to India and Cambodia. In India, greater adjutant storks have been found in Assam, Orissa, Rajasthan, Nepal Terai and Gangetic plains, but it has now disappeared or become extremely rare in the whole of its distributional range...

GUWAHATI, Feb 7 — The kingpin of rhino horn trade in the State, Md Abdul Kalam was arrested by Mayong police led by the officer-in-charge, Pradeep Nath yesterday from Kuranibari village under Mayong police station. The arrested Md Abdul Kalam was involved in the illegal trade on rhino horn in the State and has links with rhino horn traders based at Dimapur. He is suspected to be the mastermind behind the recent rhino poaching in Pobitora wildlife sanctuary through electrocution on January 8 midnight. It may be mentioned that more than a kilometre long electric wire was used to electrocute the...

JORHAT (Assam), Jan 30: Primate population in Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam has increased to 60 during the past three years marking a positive trend in wildlife conservation. Jorhat District Forest Officer MN Duarah told PTI today that the population of the Gibbons, an endangered species, was 50 in 1998 where it rose to 60 by the end of 2001. There are at present 20 families of primates as against 17 in 1998. Duarah said the increase in the number of gibbons by over 10 within three years was quite significant going by the mating characteristic of the apes as Gibbons stick to only one...

GUWAHATI, Jan 25 – Jatinga, a tiny hamlet in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district, acquired fame for its ‘suicidal birds but environmentalists now contend that the birds do not die on their own but are killed by the local villagers. The pictureseque village, surrounded by the Barail hills, the Dholong river in South-West and Jatinga river in the West, has been a matter of interest for tourists and nature lovers alike for the curious phenomenon of birds killing themselves by jumping into fire during the month of September and October. Several theories have been propounded regarding the suicidal...

GUWAHATI, Jan 21 — The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), as a part of the wild rescue programme, is setting up the first wildlife rehabelitation center of the north-eastern region near the Kaziranga National Park (KNP). WTI sources revealed that the Center will involve in rescue of temporarily disadvantaged wild animals, which have been injured, maimed, orphaned, sick or stray in addition to those that have been confiscated from animal traders. The motive is to give adequate treatment to such animals and return them to their natural environment. The center was proposed by the WTI and is a...